A few months ago, I reviewed a fun app called Labo Car Designer. The app lets kids create their own dream toy cars and drive them through various terrains and weather modes.

Today, I want to highlight another app from the same developer, called Labo Dancing Kids. Instead of creating toy cars, this app lets kids draw cute characters and make them dance to the beat.

Tap and Swipe to Dance

Labo Dancing Kids offers 12 characters that act as drawing templates. There are both boy and girl characters, and the selection includes popular themes such as ninja, zombie, and pirate. Kids can also start with a blank template if they want.

The app provides a palette of 16 colors and a set of blinking eyes that they can use to draw their characters. If they chose a blank template, they can use the iPad’s camera to take a selfie and use it for the character’s face. Once the character is complete, they can choose between three game modes: Music Rhythm, Gesture Memory, and Free Finger Dance.

In Music Rhythm, kids must tap the smiley faces as they pop up according to the beat. The character will perform a dance move based on the where the smiley faces appear.

In Gesture Memory, kids will see a dancing character. They can have their character mimic the dance moves by performing the gesture annotations on screen. For example, they may see a white arrow pointing up, down, left, or right.

As the song progresses, they may be asked to remember more moves, including ones that will let the characters rotate left/right. Once they know how to perform a swiping gesture to make their characters dance, they can play Free Finger Dance to create their own dance sequence.

Parents Need to Know

Labo Dancing Kids is a fun activity app suitable for kids ages three and up. The app includes up to 10 classic songs, such as Wheels on the Bus, Row Row Your Boat, and London Bridge.

An interesting feature is all of your child's completed drawings will be added into the in-app gallery. They can then invite these characters to dance together by tapping on the + button on the top right corner. Instead of dancing with one character, dancing with four characters is way more fun.

Use any of the 12 built-in templates, and customize it with 16 colors and 8 blinking eyes, to create your own unique character.

Things I Like

I really like the Music Rhythm game mode where players are encouraged to time their taps according to the beat. The more timely you tap the smiley faces, the more points you earn. It’s a nice reward on top of the characters dancing to the beat.

I also appreciate how the developer chose to use simple swiping gestures to make the characters dance. Even the rotating gestures are simple enough for younger kids to perform on their own. Apparently six gestures are varied enough to exercise one’s creativity in creating their own unique dance sequences.

In Labo Dancing Kids, the more the merrier. Invite all your characters for a dancing party.

Conclusion

Labo Dancing Kids is a fun dancing app for kids ages 3+ who love to draw. In addition to watching their characters come alive, they get to control the way they move to the beat. The controlling gestures are simple enough for kids to use in their own dance sequences.